


Wildflower Mural Day

by WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot, benslie, wildflower mural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 13:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4481354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks/pseuds/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ben finds another special holiday on his calendar, he decides that this is the time his gift is going to render Leslie speechless, instead of the other way around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wildflower Mural Day

**Author's Note:**

> When driving through the French countryside, one passes a lot of wildflower fields, and I couldn't not think of Ben and Leslie, so I wrote this. Hope you like it!
> 
> Enjoy!

There it was, highlighted in purple on his digital calendar: _“Wildflower Mural Day”_

Somehow, Leslie had gotten into his computer, again, and added more of their special holidays to his calendar.

Wildflower Mural Day was to take place the following Friday to commemorate the first time they sat underneath the mural together. It was the perfect opportunity for Leslie to, once again, overwhelm him with some incredibly thoughtful gift and leave him feeling guilty the rest of the day.

Well, not this time. This time, he was going to blow Leslie away with the amazing thoughtfulness of his gift. He opened up his web browser and started planning.

**_Friday, 5 AM. Wildflower Mural Day_ **

‘Leslie, go back to sleep,’ Ben said groggily. ‘It is five AM. You don’t have to be at work for at least another three hours.’

‘But it is wildflower mural day!’ she said excitedly.

‘I know, you put it on my calendar,’ Ben said, staring pointedly at Leslie, trying to silently admonish her for breaking into his computer, again.

If she noticed, she didn’t show it. She lowered her head back on the pillow, sighing in defeat.

‘Fine, we can stay in bed for another half hour.’

‘Leslie…’

‘Okay a full hour. But then I am giving you your gift. No excuses.’

‘Fine,’ Ben said, smiling secretly to himself. He couldn’t wait to give Leslie her gift.

**_7 AM._ **

Leslie had somehow managed to let him sleep for two more hours and he knew she must be bouncing off the walls downstairs. So he took a quick shower and went downstairs to face whatever thoughtful gift Leslie had come up with.

Downstairs, he found Leslie working her way through a stack of waffles and whipped cream. There was a suspicious lack of huge gift wrapped objects and somehow that made Ben even more nervous.

‘Good morning,’ Leslie said in her always chipper morning voice. ‘I put your cereal on the table.’ She smiled at him, a bit of whipped cream still in the corner of her mouth. She looked adorable and Ben was really happy with his gift for Leslie.

He walked over to her and kissed her on the lips, when he pulled back, he wiped the whipped cream from the corner of her mouth.

She smiled warmly at him, he smiled back, laying another kiss on her forehead.

‘Okay, you waited long enough. Lay it on me. I know you must be close to bursting.’

‘Oh thank god,’ Leslie let out a relieved sigh. She pulled a small gift wrapped package from underneath the table. It was about the size of an LP, but infinitely heavier.

He slowly pulled the paper off. As soon as he saw the picture he felt tears well up in his eyes. It was a mosaic of their wedding picture in front the mural, with each of the pieces bearing an inscription of something they had at some point said to each other in front of the mural. It was absolutely beautiful and priceless.

‘Leslie, this is beautiful,’ he managed to say in a small voice.

Leslie beamed, her normal 100 Watt smile becoming ten times brighter. She stood up from the table and walked over to him to hug and kiss him senseless.

‘I am glad you like it,’ she said, when she was finally done kissing him.

‘It is really beautiful and now I am not sure my gift will measure up to it.’

‘I am sure it is great,’ she kissed him again.

‘I hope so, you’ll just have to wait a little longer. Let’s say lunch. I’ll come pick you up at your office?’

‘That sounds great. I gotta go. Love you!’ she said as she pressed a quick kiss to his lips and ran out the door before he could say ‘I love you’ back. But that was Leslie, she loved her work and she loved doing as much of it as possible and that meant being there before the doors even opened.

He sighed at his wife’s antics and finished the rest of his breakfast in silence. After he cleaned up and took a shower, he arrived at work at exactly nine o’clock.

Ben had already arranged with his boss and Ron that he and Leslie would be taking the afternoon off. So he was all set.

**_12 P.M._ **

Just as he walked into City Hall to pick up Leslie, he was stopped by Chris, who was sprinting down the hallways and came to a grinding halt as he spotted Ben.

‘Ben Wyatt,’ he said in his always chipper voice. ‘What brings you here? Wait. Don’t tell me!’

Ben, used to Chris’ behavior, didn’t interrupt him.

‘You are here to pick up Leslie. For Lunch!’ he added,

‘Yeah, sort of. We are celebrating Wildflower Mural Day and I have a special surprise for here.’

‘That is, literally, so much better than lunch! So what is the surprise?’

‘Well, I am taking her to an actual field of wildflowers were we will have a picnic.’

‘That is, literally, the best idea ever, she will love it. I gotta run. Have fun!’ And Chris took off at full speed.

Ben made the rest of the way to Leslie’s office unimpeded. She was still at work at her desk, surrounded by a wall of binders and a moat of files.

‘Knock knock,’ he said, while also knocking on her open office door.

She looked up from whatever she was working on and smiled. ‘Ben! Is it time for my surprise already? These proposals are just so interesting, time really flies.’

‘Can you go now, or do you need more time?’ he asked, looking the mountains of paperwork surrounding his wife.

‘No, I’m good, these are for next Thursday’s meeting anyway, they can wait. I can’t. Wait to see my surprise that is,’ she added happily

‘Well,’ Ben said, smiling secretively, ‘You’ll have to wait a little longer.’ He pulled a blindfold out of his pocket and motioned for Leslie to turn around so he could put it on her.

‘Ben…’ she said cautiously. ‘What are you doing?’

‘You’ll see, eventually,’ he snickered at his joke, but Leslie wasn’t laughing. ‘Just let me put this on you.’

‘Fine,’ she grumbled, not happy that she didn’t get to see the surprise immediately.

‘No peeking,’ Ben said as he fastened the blindfold. He spun her around a few times for good measure and led her out of her office.

‘Ben, where are we going?’ she asked as she was led through the many corridors and hallways of city hall.

‘You’ll see,’ was all that Ben said.

While they climbed the stairs to the second floor, Leslie spoke up again.

‘Oh, I know where we are going! This is the way to the Wildflower Mural. You are not so sneaky Ben, I know city hall by heart.’

‘Yes, you do,’ Ben said as they walked right past the Wildflower Mural.

‘Ben, where are going? You just passed the mural.’

Ben smiled but said nothing.

‘Ben,’ Leslie whined as he led her down another flight of stairs and out of the building.

‘Okay, now we’re outside. Will you please tell me where we’re going?’

‘No, you’ll just have to wait and see,’ He was really having fun with this. He led Leslie towards the parking lot and opened the car with the keys from his pocket.

‘Get in. Careful,’ he said, as he helped a blind Leslie take a seat in his car.

‘It kind of feels like you are kidnapping me, you know?’ Leslie said, while feeling around for her seat-belt.

‘Leslie, sit back and relax, we will be there in half an hour. And no peeking.’

Leslie opened her mouth to protest but chose instead to heed Ben’s advice and sit back and relax.

The rest of the trip Leslie was so quiet, Ben thought she had fallen asleep, weren’t it that she also talked in her sleep.

He pulled into a dirt road and the grinding of the pebbles beneath the wheels shook Leslie out of her quiet state.

‘Ben. Where are you taking me?’

‘Almost there,’ he said as he stopped the car and got out, walking around to help Leslie out.

‘Can I take it off now?’ she said as she exited the car.

‘A few more minutes,’ he said softly. Taking Leslie’s small hand in his and leading her to the edge of the field.

‘Okay,’ he said, releasing her hand from his grasp and moving them to take of her blindfold. ‘You can take it off now.’

‘Thank god,’ she said as she pulled the blindfold away from her eyes. A few blinks to adjust her eyes to the light and then…

Her eyes got wider and her mouth fell open. Ben smiled at her lovingly. He had finally done it, he had rendered Leslie speechless. And this was only half of the surprise.

‘Ben…’ she started softly, while looking in amazement at the field of wildflowers stretched before them. ‘This is amazing.’ She turned around, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on the mouth, hard.

When he needed to breathe, he pulled back and unhooked Leslie’s arms from his neck.

‘Let’s eat,’ he said, taking Leslie’s hand and leading her back to the car, to pick up the picnic basket.

He led Leslie into the middle of the field and spread out the picnic blanket. ‘Go sit,’ he urged his wife, who was still looking around the field in awe.

She slowly sat down, still at a loss for words. Even when he pulled out a container of JJ’s best waffles and two cans of whipped cream.

‘Ben, I can’t believe you would do all this for me,’ she said after a bite of whipped cream and waffle made her speech return.

‘Leslie, after all the amazing things you have done for me this is the least I could do.’

‘It is so beautiful here. I love you so much.’

Ben smiled, ready to reveal the second part of his gift.

‘As you know, it is Wildflower Mural Day, and I know this is just a field of wildflowers.’

‘Really nice wildflowers,’ Leslie interrupted.

‘A little birdy told me that you preferred the mural to an actual field of wildflowers. And I think I know why. You love the fact that that mural is part of your favorite building in Pawnee: City hall. So I decided to bring a little of city hall here.’

He smiled warmly at her, taking her hands in his. ‘So why don’t you look behind you?’

Leslie’s eyes widened once again, she slowly looked behind her and when she saw all her friends and colleagues her mouth fell open and her eyes teared up a bit.

They were all there; April and Andy, Tom, Ann, Donna and Ron. How could she not cry?

Ben pulled Leslie in for a hug. ‘Happy Wildflower Mural Day,’ he whispered into her ear. She looked up at him and smiled the wildest smile he had ever seen.

‘Ann told you right?’ she said softly.

‘Yes, she did.’

She wiped her tears away. ‘I love you both. This is the best thing ever, Ben,’ she said as she stood up to welcome all of her friends.

They had the best picnic of all time that day. And Leslie had to admit, the best Wildflower Mural Day ever.

**_3 Weeks after Wildflower Mural Day_ **

When the doorbell rang, Leslie sprang up from the couch where she had been watching one of her many political talk shows.

‘I’ll get it,’ she yelled at Ben, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

When she opened the door there was no one there. Just a large package on the welcome mat. She looked around for a card but found nothing.

‘Ben! Can you come over here?' she called out while dragging the huge package inside.

‘Someone just left this on our doorstep. Do you think we should open it?’

Ben smiled at her. ‘It was on our doorstep, so I’ll say it’s probably safe.’

He stood back and let Leslie unwrap the _“mystery”_ package.

‘What is it?’ he asked innocently, after she had gotten most of the paper off.

‘A painting of some kind, I think. Let me just get all the paper off,’ she said and as she pulled away the last paper her eyes got wide once again and her mouth fell open. She looked at the painting, then at Ben, then at the painting again. Her eyes filling with tears.

‘Ben,’ she cried softly. ‘How? How did you do this?’

Ben walked around to stand next to his wife. He had to say, Jerry had done an exceptional job on the painting. All of them were clearly recognizable and the wildflowers were so vibrant they looked real.

‘It is a Wildflower Mural Day miracle,’ he said, still looking at their own private, little Wildflower Mural.


End file.
